Graduates face a rigorous selection process before being allowed to train as
teachers under radical Coalition plans to improve classroom standards.

In the most sweeping reform of the education system in a generation, the Government will force would-be teachers to take aptitude tests and undergo personality screening before being accepted on to courses.

Basic tests in literacy and numeracy – which all teachers must pass before qualifying – will also be toughened up to stop trainees repeatedly re-sitting the exams.

An education White Paper published on Wednesday also makes it clear that heads will be given extra powers to remove incompetent teachers from the classroom.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, insisted heads should have more confidence to tell the worst staff that “teaching is not for you”.

The disclosure comes just 24 hours after a report from the education watchdog Ofsted warned that teaching standards were “dull and uninspiring” in as many as half of secondary schools in England.

Mr Gove insisted that a rise in teaching standards was vital to the Coalition’s long-term plan to put English schools on par with the best in the world.

But the move threatened to put the Coalition on a collision course with unions who accused ministers of launching a “vicious assault” on the teaching profession.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “The Secretary of State’s statements are a disgraceful denigration and misrepresentation of the performance of schools and teachers.”

The White Paper – The Importance of Teaching – set out a package of reforms to raise the status of teachers and boost classroom standards. This included:

*The creation of a new generation of “training schools” – modelled on teaching hospitals – in which would-be teachers would be given on-the-job training;

*Refusing to fund training for students failing to gain at least a 2:2 degree;

*A programme to recruit former Armed Services officers into teaching by paying for them to take postgraduate training courses;

*The creation of a “Teach Next” scheme to recruit people from a range of trades and professions into teaching.

In one of the most radical reforms, the Coalition said it would “raise the bar” for entry to teacher training courses.

Currently, all teachers must pass “basic skills” tests in the three-Rs before qualifying. But one-in-seven trainees re-sit the exams more than three times before passing.

The White Paper proposed toughening up the tests and clamping down on the number of re-sits. Crucially, the test will be taken at the start of training – rather than the end – to weed out the weakest candidates straight away.

Ministers also want to introduce “aptitude, personality and resilience” assessments – already used in countries such as Finland – before accepting students on to training courses.

For existing teachers, schools will be given more freedom to pay the best staff higher salaries and greater powers to sack the worst performers.

“No-one is helped when poor performance remains unaddressed,” said the report. “Underperforming teachers place additional pressures on their colleagues and let down the children in their care.”

The White Paper said current regulations surrounding teacher competence procedures were too “complex, lengthy and fragmented” – meaning heads were reluctant to fire staff not fit for the classroom. They will be shortened and simplified under Coalition plans, although full details are yet to emerge.

Mr Gove said: "The countries that come out top of international studies into educational performance recognise that the most crucial factor in determining how well children do at school is the quality of their teachers.

"The best education systems draw their teachers from among the top graduates and train them rigorously, focusing on classroom practice. They recognise that it is teachers' knowledge, intellectual depth and love of their subject which stimulates the imagination of children and allows them to flourish and succeed.

"But for too long in our country, teachers and heads have been hamstrung by bureaucracy and left without real support."